Doctrine

When it comes to trying to square up all the contradictory accounts of Joseph Smith's "First Vision," two Mormon apostles demonstrated to me that they couldn't see the forest because of the grove of trees.

A black former bishop posted a very interesting on-line piece regarding Blacks and the priesthood.
"The peculiar assertion that the Mormon Church itself does not know the details of its very own race-based policy of restricting the Blacks from holding the Priesthood is tremendously embarrassing for all Mormons and exceptionally degrading for anyone who actually believes it."

My lifelong TBM friend just called to tell me he is going to research the truth about the church. He stumbled onto wivesofjosephsmith.org and it really shook his faith that the church has never taught any of this. He knew Joseph Smith was a polygamist but was unaware of polyandry and 14 year old girls.

I've occasionally posted what I consider to be some of the best links regarding problems with Mormonism 101. These could be useful if you are talking to a Mormon who is beginning to have doubts or who is at least willing to listen.

BYU professor of history, Thomas G. Alexander, in his ground-breaking research, "The Reconstruction of Mormon Doctrine: From Joseph Smith to Progressive Theology," lays down an expansive trail of the Mormon Church's historically incomplete, self-negating, wavering, flip-flopping, morphing, perplexing and indeterminate official stances on the core bedrock of its much-ballyhooed "divinely-revealed" doctrine

Yesterday at a holiday get-together, my best freind, who is an ex-mo as well (and has been since we graduated from BYU together) and I debated whether Mormonism is a cult. Her extended family is still LDS